What Are Your Goals For 2012 - Why Set Goals

Why Set Goals Are There Advantages?

Each new year brings a new sense of setting goals and planning to create changes, but why set goals? Statistics and studies show those who write down their specific goals have greater success in attaining these. Mark McCormack asked Harvard business school students, “have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?” The results from just the question alone were interesting. The following are these results:

three percent of the graduates had written goals and plans

13 percent had goals, but they were not in writing

84 percent had no specific goals at all

Why Set Goals – There Are Definitely Proven Advantages

Why set goals, after ten years Mark interviewed these same students to track the results of these goals. As the initial result showed, there were marked differences from a mere 3 percent with written goals to a substantial 84 percent with no goals. YES, there are definitely advantages to the reasons why it is imperative to set goals, why set goals, proven results!

The 84 percent of students with no goals were making considerably lower income than the 13 percent with goals, however, unwritten. The 3 percent with written goals were shown to be making up to ten times more than the other two groups.

Why Set Goals – What Are Your Targets?

As you begin to assess your circumstances you must come up with a clear and precise target, a definite why set goals answer. Ask yourself, “why set goals”? Some things to consider in your soul searching are:

set clear goals, be sure to evaluate your purpose, your “why”

time management is crucial, you must be willing to put in the time, research and effort necessary to ensure you reach your goal

set your goals high enough to offer a challenge, but stay within what you feel you have the potential of reaching, don’t set yourself up for failure

give yourself a timeline for each task, “whenever” won’t create the success you desire

be persistent, track and record each step

Many people fail because they fail to understand why set goals is a must in success. Don’t allow failure to be an option in your life. Begin to create goals, in doing so you will begin to learn How To Be Successful In Life. Be enthusiastic about the path you have chosen, often you will have to be your own encourager. Never lose sight of the goal(s) you’ve set forth, create a vision board of what reaching your goals looks like to you. Look at your vision board daily as a reminder of “why” you have made this commitment, why set goals has been moved to the top of your priority list. Crossing the finish line of success is reward in itself.

Goal setting is the one thing that separates the winners from the losers and the successful from the unsuccessful. “Whenever” is definitely not the best term to use when creating goals.

One thing you can do is to actually write the goal as if you have completed it and read it everyday. This is powerful because it gets you focused on actually achieving it rather than just writing it and reading it here and there.

Hey Julie,
Of course, knowing what you want exactly will help you achieve it faster. However, many new goals show up as we progress in life. Besides the goal setting and action taking I would add gratitude and openess. You know the saying..Let go, Let God. When something unexpected happens we tend to say..ohh that shouldn’t be happenning..In fact, it is there for a good reason. Accept it and see the bigger picture. There is a natural flow of life available that guide us..if we allow it.

Those are some very true words Radu, “let go and let God”. When we finally stop trying to be the writer, director and producer and follow the plan God has already laid out for us, things tend to fall into place a lot easier!!

Hi Julie,
Wow love the look of your site, the orange is hot! Very unique, and this is another fantastic article you’ve done about the importance of goals. I have to agree with all your points actually. I especially agree with being persistant and tracking your results. It’s hard to know what’s wrong if you don’t track your actoins.
Thanks,
Neil

Hey Neil,
Thanks! I decided to change my site up a bit, glad to get your feed back on it. Something that Adam Chandler said on a webinar the other day really sums it up, “failing to plan … is planning to fail”. So, yes we should write it down, make it clear, be persistent and track our progress making the necessary adjustments.

Hey Julie,
Setting a goal effectively throughout life is the most important skills that any of us can have.
By setting goals, you are taking the first step to a appy, more productive life that is fulfilling
A vision board is a good idea to remind ourself of why we need to set our goals.

I have to admit that my goal setting “goals” haven’t been a priority lately. I mean I have clear vision of where I am going and what I want to achieve, but I haven’t followed the traditional goal-setting procedure by setting clear figures, time limits etc.

Wow Julie, that is a phenominal difference with those who wrote down their goals and those who didn’t. I’m definitely hitting the pencil to paper a little more!
TonyaTonya recently posted..Dining out tonight??

Julie, this is one of the more difficult things of the commitment. It is so because everyone, including me, said for themselves that with a little bit of knowledge we fulfill our goals, but is more than a little bit is a lot of our attention and desires and discipline, and the last thing is consistency. Thanks for the list of goals, it helps a lot. Thanks.Piedad recently posted..IS POSTING AND BLOGGING A DANCE?

Hey Piedad,
True, sometimes we have to take things slowly and pick up speed as we go. Starting any new venture can be an overwhelming feat, however, we have to take it piece by piece before the entire puzzle is put together. Main focus is on seeing what the many pieces creates.

Goal setting is very important. I like to set 3, 6, and 12 month goals. I also set longer goals such as 3 and 5 years. It keeps me focused and on track for what I want to accomplish. Great post Julie!Kent Smith recently posted..Gas Prices On the Rise

Hi Julie, There are definite advantages of setting goals. It means your unconscious mind will be focusing on these things and you will then notice the opportunities to reach these goals. Love it. Awesome! Warmest Regards Shirley

Thank you so much Shirley,
We must remain focused. There are so many distractions in life that if we don’t sometimes put on those blinders and create a “tunnel vision” and continue on the path, we may “just miss it”.

Setting goals is so important and it works great if you share those goals with others. I was taught a very long time ago to make a 1, 3, 5 and 10 year plan and write down everything you want to achieve in those years. It is very rewarding and makes it more real to write everything down.

Hey Tristram,
Thanks!!! I definitely have to determine my path and goals not only for the year(s), but the weeks to stay on track. (Actually … sometimes it’s more a daily chore) LOL But as the results from the experience proved “why set goals” … in order to achieve them and reap the rewards.

Hey Julie,
I’m one of those people who actually do set goals but towards the middle I find myself not being very compliance. Great blog post and thanks for sharing
Cheers
ElizabethElizabeth recently posted..Social Media Branding : 3 Top Branding Strategies

So very true, we must start somewhere. Too often we always say “tomorrow” and tomorrow never arrives. When we look up, another week, month, year has gone by … no better time to start goal setting that right here, right now.